Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-12-01
THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH.
DIR. rALMAGE's SUNDAY SERMON
A Few Timely Words IN Regard to
Spiritual Health

Tor text8. Most OF the passages OF Scripture,
when announced at the opening Of sermons,
Immediately divide themselves into old dis
cllssions that we have heard from boyhood,
and the effect on US Is soporifc. The auditor
guesses at the start Just what the preacher
viii say. There are very important chapters
and verses that have never been preached
from. Much Of my lifetime am devoting
TO unlocking these gold chests and blasting
open these quarries. We talk about the
heart, and sing about the heart, but il you
refer to the physical organ that we call the
heart, it has not half 50 much TO do with
spiritual health or disease, moral exaltation
or spiritual depression, as the organ to the
consideration OF which Solomon calls us in
the text, when he describes sin progressing
'still dart strike through his liver.n
Solomons anatomical and physiological
discoveries were SO very great that he was
nearly 5000 years ahead Of the scientists of
bis day. He, more than 900 years before
Christ, seemed to know about the circulation
of the blood, which Harvey discovered 1,619
years after Christ, for when Solomon in
Ecclesiastes describing the human body,
speaks Of the pitcher at the fountain, he evil
IDENTIFY means the three canals leading from
the heart that receive the blood like pitchers.
When he speaks in Ecclesiastes of thesilver
cord Of life, he evidently means the spinal
marrow about which in our day Drs Mayo
and Carpenter, and Dalton, and Flint, and
Brown-Sequard have experimental. And
Solomon recorded In the Bible thousands OF
years before scientists discovered it, that in
his time the spinal cord relaxed in old age,
producing the tremors Of hand and head;
ssOr il the silver cord be loosed.n
In the text he reveals the fact that he had
studied that largest gland OF the human sys-
tenn, the liver, not by the electric light of the
modern dssecting room, but by the dim light
OF comparatively dark age, and yet had
seen its important function in the God-built
castle OF the human body, its selecting and
secreting power, its curious cells, its elon-
gated, branching tubes, divine workman
ship in central, and right and left lobe, and
the hepatic artery through which God con-
ducts the crimson tides. Oh this vital organ
Is like the eye Of God in that it never sleeps.
Solomon knew of it and had noticed either
In yivisect;on or post mortem what awful at
tacks sin and dissipation make upon it, until
with the fat of Almighty God it bids the
body and soul separate, and the one it COM
mands to the grave and the other it sends to
Judgment-a javelin of retribution, not
'Rlancing off or making O slight wound, but
piercing it from side to side It'll the dart
strike through the liver.n Galen and Hippo
crates ascribe to the liver the most of the
worlds moral depression, and the word
melancholy means black bile.
preach to you this morning the gospel of
health. In taking diagnosis of the diseases
OF the soul you must also take the diagnoses
of the diseases of the body As If to recog-
nize this, one whole book of the New Testa-
ment was written by physician. Luke was
doctor and he diScources much of physical
effects, and he tells of the gooG Samaritan's
medication OF the wounds by pouring in oil
and VINE, and recognizes hunger as him
drance to hearing the Gospel, so that the
500 were fed; and records the spare diet of
the prodigal away from home, and the extin-
guished eyesight of the beggar by the way
side, and let's us know of the hemorrhage of
the wounds OF the dying Christ and the
miraculous post-mortem resuscitation. And
any estimate of the spiritual condition that
does not include also an estimate of the
physical condition is incomplete
First. let Christian people avoid the mis-
take that they are all wrong with God be-
cause they suffer from depression Of spirits.
Many consecrated man has found his spir-
itual sky befogged, and his hope and heaven
blotted out and himself plunged chin deep in
the Slough of Despond, and hiss said: "My
heart is not right with God, and think Imust
have made mistake, and instead OF being q
@uhild of light l am a child of darkness. No
:. one can feel as gloomy as feel and be q
Christian And he has gone to his minister
for consolation, and he has collected Flavel's
;. books, and Ceci's books, and Baxter's books,
and read and read and read, and prayed and
prayed and prayed and wept and wept anc
wept, and groaned and groaned and groaned.
My brother, your trouble is not with
the heart; it is a gastric disorder or re-
bellion Of the liver You need u physi-
clan more than you do clergyman. 1t is
not sin that blots out your hops of he wen,
but bile. 1t not only yellows your eyeball,
and furs your tongue, and makes your head
ache, but swoops upon your soul in objections
and forebodings The devil is after you. Ht
4. fn;In <r. 0hor md hf
does the next best thing for him-he rufile'
your peace Of mind. When he says that yol
are not a forgiven soul, when he says tha
YOU are not right with God when he say!
that you will never get to heaven, he lies
You are just as sure of heaven as though yol
were there already. But Satan, finding tina
he cannot keep you out OF the promised lan'
of Canaan has determined that the spie
shall not bring you any of the Eschol Crane
beforehand, and that you shalt have nothin
but prickly pear and crab apple. You are jus
as good now under the cloud as you were whe
YOU were accustomed to rise in the mornin
TO pray and sing "Hallelujah tits done
Edward Payson, sometimes so far u
on the mount that 1t seemed as ii tt
centripetA force OF earth could no lonEe
hold him, sometimes through phys cal a
order was SO far down that it seemed as II I'll
neither world would clutch him. Gloriol
be. and will be loved in the Christian churt
as long as it sings his hymn beginning
<sThere is fountain filled with blood, or
his HYMN beginning: ''Oh, for closer wa
with God, ~ and his hymn beginning: "Wh
yarions hindrances we meet" and his hyn
beginning: ''God moves in a mysterio
way Yet SO was he overcome Of mela
choly, or black bile, that it was only throul
the mistake OF the cab driver, who took hi
to a wrong place, instead OF the river ban
that he did not commit suicide,
Spiritual condition so nightly affected
the physical state! What great oppe
Eunity this gives the Christian physician, T
he can feel at the same time both the pulse
the body and the pulse of the soul, and
can administer to both at once and IL met
cine is needed he can give chat, and IL spirl
ual counsel is needed he can give that
earthly and divine prescription at the sar
time--and call not only the apothecary
earth, but the pharmacy OF heaven. a
&his is the kind Of doctor want at my be
Gide when get sick. one that can not on
pour out the right number Of drops, but o
who can also pray. That is the kind OF az
cor have had in my house when sickness
death came. do not want any Of your pr
ligate or atheistic doctors around my lov
ones when the balances of life are tire
bling. A doctor who has gone through
medical college, and in dissecting rot
has traversed the wonders Of the hum
mechanism, and found no God In any OF
labyrinths, is fool and cannot doctor mo
mine. But, oh, the Christian doctorsl WI
O comfort they have been in many OF {
households. And they ought to have wa
place In our prayers, rs well as praise on
tongues Dear old DR.. Skillmanl My fathe
doctor, my mothers doctor, In the villa
home. He carried all the condolences
all the families fourteen Dliles aroul
We all felt better as soon as we saw him